


Kiss 'em Better

by ohsochrissable



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: College AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 10:50:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7637224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohsochrissable/pseuds/ohsochrissable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flights, accents, small rooms, and questionable dance moves are no hardship compared to having a crush on your flatmate. Will Chris be able to face the amount of new experiences that come his way when he decides to go to university on the other side of the ocean?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to [Cassie](http://cc-graphics.tumblr.com/) for being a wonderful big bang partner and for creating gorgeous art for this fic, which can be found [here](http://cc-graphics.tumblr.com/post/148252798302/flights-accents-small-rooms-and-questionable)! I hope it makes you want to travel.
> 
> Thanks so much to [Tessa](http://thesongsparrow.tumblr.com/) for being an incredible beta and understanding everything I wanted to say. I apologize for your consumed comma key!
> 
> Thanks so much to [Lindsey](http://crisscolferbigbang.tumblr.com/) for organizing yet another round of the CCBB, creating a supporting environment, and giving us new CC fics ever year.
> 
> That was all, enjoy!

_Prefer to be allocated according to:_  
Chris selected Nationality without giving it too much thought. He was happy about moving, but hearing a familiar accent when living so far away from home would be nice.  
When he finally completed the application for Accommodation, he let out a sigh of relief. That was the last thing on his to do list for the whole process, and now all he had to do was wait.  


* * *

  
The flight was okay. Long, and the two-hour layover a bit boring, but okay. The bus from the airport to the city center was interesting. He was too busy making sure he wouldn’t miss his stop to look around and take in the city, but he had four years for that, so he wasn’t too bummed.

His suitcases were heavy as he hauled them off the bus, and he only panicked for a second when he realized he was in the middle of the city with no idea where the train station was. He decided to try and follow a group of girls who seemed to know what they were doing. It was the right decision, apparently, since all of a sudden he could hear announcements for trains and suitcases rolling on the hard ground, and oh, there was the Departures screen. He had to look up the note on his phone with all the directions he had written before leaving, but once he knew which train he had to take, it was easy to locate the track. He didn’t have to wait for long before he could finally sit down, the two heavy suitcases stored in the space beside the doors.

His stop was the first, and his arms were hurting at that point, but he was almost there. There was only a bit of a climb left to reach the street, but he pushed through and finally, _finally_ he could see the campus, white and bright even in the grey weather. Reaching the Accommodation Office was easy seeing as he wasn’t the only one moving in that day, and there were a few people that all looked the same as him—hunched over and tired and trudging two suitcases with them—who were all going in the same direction. He simply followed, again, and found himself in front of a desk with a chipper girl with one hell of an accent explaining to him and two more people everything they had to know about the moving-in process, before he was finally holding the keys to his home for the next nine months.

His block was close to the office and it was easy to locate his apartment. Flat. His flat. In his block. It would take some time for him to get used to the words. Everything looked kind of impersonal. The long corridor had a blue carpet and six grey doors on the left and one more at the end. Chris assumed that one led to the kitchen, and his room was the last one, so it meant that he wouldn’t have to do a walk of shame for a midnight snack.

Once he was finally safely inside his room, he texted his parents and then felt the exhaustion dawn on him. He’d been up for more than twenty-four hours and most of those were spent travelling. That bare mattress was really inviting.

When he woke up, it was starting to get dark outside. He was cold and his skin felt too dry and the room smelled weird, like new and wood and unused furniture. His stomach was rumbling, his bladder was throbbing, and there was an unpleasant taste in his mouth. He made a mental list of things to do: turn on the lights; pee; drink; put on a heavier hoodie; eat the chips left from the flight; probably drink again; investigate the plastic package that was on the mattress, before it ended up on the floor, and the orange box that was on the desk; explore the kitchen. He checked his phone before the investigation and exploration, finding it was just after 6pm and his parents had texted him back. He realized he still hadn’t logged into the wifi and added that to the list.

It took him a while to do everything, but he did it. Every movement was slow and mechanical, but he had time since he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep that night anyway, thanks to the jetlag. He knew the university had organized buses to go shopping for all the stuff they needed the next day. As much as he didn’t want to go, he kind of had to, seeing as the only things he’d brought with him were clothes, books, and DVDs. At least those could go on the shelves already and make the room feel less empty.

He spent a long while just unpacking what he could. Some of his clothes were still in the suitcases, because he didn’t have any coathangers yet, and he added that to the list of things to buy the next day. He managed to get in another restless nap after that, but when he woke back up it was 5am and that still left six hours before he had to get on the bus.

Something slammed against his wall. He would’ve jumped if his brain was reactive enough, but that wasn’t the case. He could still connect the noise to someone being in the kitchen, though, and he was so sleep-deprived that he actually decided to go and see who it was.

“Shit, sorry, man, did I wake you up?”  
  
Chris felt like an owl as he slowly looked to his left, where a guy was sitting in one of the chairs propped against the wall that was shared with his room.  
  
“No, it’s fine, I was awake. Can’t sleep.” The guy gave him a weird smile and a knowing nod.

“Jetlag?” he asked. Chris nodded. The accent was familiar, and the other guy probably noticed that too.

“Yeah, me too. I’m Darren, by the way,” he added when Chris’s only reaction was to blink slowly at him.

“Chris.”  
  
“Chris. Where are you from?” Darren asked. His shirt had a mouse holding an electric guitar on it.

“Clovis, California. You?” Chris was proud of himself for remembering to ask the question back. That was a weird fucking shirt.

“Ooh, San Francisco here, we were close!” Darren said, more excited than Chris was expecting. His curls moved with every movement of his head, and his eyes had a mesmerizing kind of sparkle in the electric light of the kitchen.

“Nice.” Chris nodded, leaning back against the counter and hugging his arms to his chest. He was normally okay at conversations, but the jetlag, new environment, and new person combined were a bit too much apparently.

“What are you studying?” Darren asked.

“Theatre and Film,” Chris said. He still wasn't really sure what that entailed, since the website wasn't _that_ clear about it, but he had a rough idea and it sounded like heaven. Anything to get out of Clovis.

“I'm Drama and Performance, which is basically just theatre so I'm assuming we’re gonna share some classes?”

“Probably,” Chris nodded. “Are you a first year?” He was starting to get curious. Darren looked older than him and definitely more outgoing.

“No, I'm in third year, but I'm only doing one semester here as a study abroad thing,” he said, his nose scrunching to the side as he spoke.

“Oh, okay.” Chris nodded again, crossing one ankle over the other. “Then I don't think we’ll share any classes.” When he noticed how closed off he looked, he let his arms fall to his sides, but then he didn’t know what to do with them, so he shoved them in the pockets of his pants.

“True,” Darren said, and he looked disappointed.

“So you go to college in San Francisco?” Chris asked.

Darren shook his head and smiled. “Nope, Michigan. But I’m from San Francisco.”

“Cool,” Chris said, nodding a bit. He didn’t know what to add anymore. “Um, I think I’ll just…” He pointed to the door, “go to back to my room, try to nap or something. I’m going on the shopping trip in the morning and I don’t really wanna look like a zombie.”

Darren chuckled. “Okay, well, I’ll see you there then. I hope you manage to get some sleep.”  
  
“Thanks.” Chris smiled. “See you tomorrow,” he added before leaving the kitchen and going back to the safety of his room. Well, that was one roommate met.

* * *

  
It turned out that he had a lot in common with Darren.

They met at the bus stop the next morning, both sporting impressive bags under their eyes, and smiled at each other. They didn’t know anyone else yet, so they sat together on the bus.

Darren was the one doing most of the talking until he started a conversation about his major, and Chris finally felt awake enough to realize that he was actually interested. He didn’t know much about American college, nor British university, so he was curious to learn what Darren was doing. He told him that he took theatre classes, and music classes, and whatever he wanted, really, and that his course was supposed to be similar to the one they were about to start.

And then somehow talking about theatre got them talking about musical theatre, and Harry Potter, and superheroes, and they were set for the whole journey. In no time they were back in their apartment dragging their bags full of bedding and plates and cutlery down the hallway to their kitchen, where they stopped to take a break and keep talking and talking and talking.

At one point, when most of their stuff was in the cupboards, the door started to open very slowly, and a girl popped her head inside. “Hello?” she said quietly. Chris could barely hear it.

“Hi!” Darren said, giving her a bright smile.

“Hi. I’m Gael,” she said as she stepped inside and seamlessly hopped on to the counter. Gael was Scottish and her hair was bleached. She had a lip piercing and a round tattoo on her forearm, and her really quiet voice contrasted with her whole image. The low volume combined with her accent made it hard for Chris to understand what she was saying sometimes. Darren didn’t seem to have that problem, if the half hour of constant conversation he had with her was anything to go by.

They met two more flatmates the next day, Eden and Alistair. They were both Scottish and neither of them seemed to want to spend a lot of time with him, Darren and Gael. Apparently they had other friends already. Still, at the Freshers night at the Union, as everyone called it, which Chris translated to a night for all the freshmen in the small pub/bar/club they had on campus, Eden stuck with them and tried to introduce her other friends to the group.

Once the usual questions were out of the way (name, course, age, nationality), Chris found himself talking to Eden’s Finnish friend, Veera, who was extremely outgoing and had a really pretty accent. Chris found out she was in the middle of writing a book, and they bonded over that. Both of them were curious to know what else the other had written. Veera was really passionate about dragons and Lord of the Rings, which just started another string of conversation.

Chris didn’t think it would be that easy to make friends during his first week, but by the end of the night he seemed to have found a group of people to at least hang out with as they all tried to make it through the first few weeks of university.


	2. Chapter 2

“So why did you guys choose to study here?” Eden asked one night when they were hanging out in the kitchen.

“Oh, I didn’t have that many choices and Edinburgh was the one with the best theatre scene,” Darren answered before standing up from his chair and walking over to the fridge. Chris watched as he opened it, stared at it for a few seconds, closed it, and then went to sit back down. He turned back to Eden when she called his name.

“Um, I needed…a change of scenery. I did a few auditions during the year, but nothing ever came of it and I didn’t wanna be stuck in community college. The other options were too expensive, and then the internet led me here. Plus, yeah, Edinburgh is good with the arts and all that stuff,” he explained, while Eden looked at him and nodded.

“Yeah, it is really good. Are you guys gonna be here for the Fringe in August?” she asked, starting to get excited, “It’s such a great festival; there are shows everywhere.”  
  
“It’s really cool!” Gael agreed from her spot. She had developed a tendency to always gravitate to the same corner, either sitting on top of the counter or on the floor between two cupboards.

“I’ll probably be home in August,” Chris answered, followed by Darren’s “same.”

“Oh, damn,” Eden sighed, “Well, maybe next year?”

Later, when Eden and Gael had gone to bed, Darren propped his chin on the back of the chair and looked at Chris. “You said you did some auditions? What for?”  
  
“Oh, just some TV shows, whatever my agent could find,” Chris answered, smiling a bit, “But somehow no one wanted the flamboyant gay with a woman’s voice. And before you say anything, I _know_ , I can’t explain it either.”

Darren laughed softly. “It truly is a mystery,” he joked. Chris nodded, smiling in amusement.

Talking to Darren was becoming easier and easier as the days went by. Chris found himself wishing for other people to shut up when Darren was in the room, just so he could hear what Darren had to say. He knew that he would probably turn out to be an asshole in the end, but Chris was hoping he was just as smart and funny as he seemed right now. He had a sense of humour that clicked well with his, and they seemed to always end up laughing when they were together, which was a nice change, since Chris hadn’t done much of that in high school.

Darren was interesting and experienced, and Chris was a little ashamed to admit that he was starting to see him as a mentor, since he looked nothing like someone you’d look up to. His hair was all over the place all the time, and he generally looked like he had just finished smoking weed, with his clothes making him seem like he simultaneously wanted to be a Spice Girl and a middle-aged man on a stressful city vacation with his family of five.

When Darren talked, though, Chris felt a pull, like everything he said was essential for Chris’s future. And his present, too, apparently, since Darren was asking him if he wanted to go hang out in his room.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Chris nodded, before they both stood up and headed to Darren’s room. Which smelt really good, like freshly-washed sheets and spring. Chris took a deep breath and decided not to say anything in case he’d look like a creep.

It was the first time Chris actually went into Darren’s room. He didn’t have much apart from a few books and CDs and some clothes scattered around. There was a guitar propped against the wall at the end of the bed, and Chris plucked one string. “You play?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m usually that douche with an acoustic guitar at parties,” he answered with a small smile. He grabbed the guitar and sat down at the end of the bed, starting to play quietly as Chris sat down next to the pillow instead.

“Do you play anything?” Darren asked him.

Chris shook his head. “No. I can kinda sing, though,” he said, watching as Darren’s fingers moved over the strings, so softly the sound was barely there.

“You’ll have to sing for me sometime, then,” Darren smiled. They fell silent after that, leaning back against the wall as they just listened to the soothing melody coming from Darren’s guitar. Chris didn’t even realize his eyes had slipped closed until the sound stopped and he heard the guitar being put back where it was when they got there.

“You’re falling asleep,” Darren said, and Chris could hear the amusement in his voice.

“I was merely appreciating your music-making skills,” he countered, although his words were slow and relaxed. “It works better if your eyes are closed.”

“Sure thing. Want me to carry you to bed?” It sounded like the perfect solution to how lax his limbs felt, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t a real offer.

“No, thanks, I think I can manage that on my own,” he answered as he opened his eyes and tilted his head against the wall to look at Darren, who just stared back at him with a soft smile. Chris really wanted to hug him in that moment. Instead, he stood up and walked towards the door. “Goodnight, Darren.”

“Goodnight, Chris. See you tomorrow.” 

* * *

 

The second weekend after they had moved in, their little group of friends all met up in their kitchen with a few bottles of alcohol and some music. It wasn’t a party, just a way to let loose after the first week of classes and get to know everyone better. Chris decided he wasn’t going to drink that night, and he was very thankful they weren’t close enough yet to play Never Have I Ever. Not that Gael didn’t try. Eden and Veera shut her up in time, though, and turned the music on louder, starting to dance together.

Chris liked them a lot. He still wasn’t sure about Gael, though. She was fun to hang out with, but sometimes she sounded really conceited and judgy. He needed more time to figure her out before making a decision about her. He was pulled from his thoughts when Eden tugged on his hand to get him to stand up and dance with them, while Veera did the same with Darren and Renée, a French girl they had met during the first week. They all obliged, of course, and soon the whole room was up and dancing with each other to old songs their friend Johnny was choosing and that they hadn’t heard in ages.

Chris found himself sandwiching a laughing Veera between him and Darren. During one of her drunken twirls, Chris heard her shout at Darren that he smelled really good; he butted in, and his words made her turn around, “His whole room smells really good!”.

“Really?” she asked, and Chris nodded. His eyes shot up to Darren’s, wide in shock, when Veera ran away from them and out of the kitchen. A second later, he was following Darren as he ran after her to his room, seeing his door closing just before they reached it. When they opened it, Veera was lying on Darren’s unmade bed, hugging his pillow and taking a deep breath, “Mmh, it all smells so good. Why does it smell so good?” she asked.

Darren laughed and took a step forward, “I think—” He was interrupted by the door opening again and only barely missing Chris.

“Cuddle pile!” Eden shouted as she pushed past them and jumped on the bed beside Veera, with Gael following close behind and lying down on top of them. “Come on, guys, come cuddle with us!”

Darren let out another laugh and walked over to the bed, trying to find an empty spot. He managed to somehow squeeze himself between Veera and the wall, while Chris told Eden to stand up and let him stay under her so he wouldn’t crush her. When they had all found a more or less comfortable position to stay in, Johnny and Renée walked into the room and let out an _Aww_ at the same time.

“Wait, wait, let me tuck you in,” Johnny said, grabbing the blanket and pulling it over all five of them while Renée got her phone out to take a picture.

“I am suffocating.” They heard Veera’s soft voice say from under it all. None of them could actually see her, and that was apparently so funny that every person in the room burst out laughing, although that proved very difficult for Chris, whose belly couldn’t really move under Eden’s weight, while Veera was elbowing him in the ribs in an attempt to get out.

Everyone was moving and poking each other and in the general mess Eden somehow ended up on the floor, convulsing with laughter, “You guys are dicks!”

“Hey, hey, watch your language!” Veera said, trying to point a finger in her direction.

Gael laughed, “That’s my boob, dear.”

With a very high-pitched and sudden squeal, Veera managed to push both Chris and herself off the bed and halfway on top of Eden, who screamed and covered her face as Veera rolled away from Chris and ended up draped across her body. While Chris laughed and got comfortable on the floor, Gael stood up, cupping her boob. “She’s very offended, Veera,” she said.

Veera was in the middle of an apology when Chris saw a dark shadow fall on top of him. Darren had apparently decided to join in on the floor fun and had rolled off the bed of his own volition, dragging the blanket with him and covering all four of them.

“I was starting to feel lonely,” he explained when Chris stared questioningly from underneath him. It was a pretty weird position to find oneself in on a Friday night. It felt nice though. Darren was softer than he looked. And smelled _so_ good. Chris took a deep breath at the same time as Veera, who grabbed the blanket and tugged it closer to her nose, “Mmh, the good smell is back. I love being wrapped in a burrito of good smell,” she murmured, closing her eyes.

“Oh god, she’s gone. Can someone drag her to bed?” Eden asked.

“Nope, no, I am completely awake,” Veera argued, shaking her head and then letting out a long _Nooo_ when Renée made her get up. “I’ve got her. See you guys tomorrow,” she said as she and Veera left.

Somewhere between their discussion of how much of a lightweight Veera was and the best drinking game Darren had ever played, Johnny and Eden left as well, leaving Gael on Darren’s bed while he and Chris were still lying on the floor under his blanket.

“Do you drink, Chris?” Gael asked curiously.

Chris braced himself for the answer he was about to give, “Um, I've never drunk anything other than wine at the occasional party with my relatives. I'm not legal yet, technically.”

“Ooh, true, you have to be twenty-one. That's such a stupid rule. Well, you can drink here. Do you want some beer?” she offered.

“No, thanks. I think I'll pass for tonight,” he said, giving her a small smile.

“Are you sure? It's good, I promise.”

“I'm sure,” he confirmed.

“Not even another drink? There are still a few things in the kitchen.” Chris kind of wanted her to stop.

Thankfully, Darren spoke up. “Hey, it's okay, we’ll have a proper initiation when you feel like it. No pressure,” he said calmly, his voice low and soothing. Chris really wanted to hug him.

“All right,” Gael shrugged, smiling easily.

“Well, folks, I think it’s time to go to sleep. Big day tomorrow,” Darren said then.

“What’s happening tomorrow?” Chris asked, looking at him.

Darren took a deep breath before speaking, “I’m going grocery shopping.”

Chris laughed.

* * *

 

The cuddle piles became a recurring event during the next few weeks. They tried everyone’s beds, but Darren’s remained their favorite. During one of the many position changes, Chris found himself being spooned by Darren. It was a position he’d never found himself in, with someone holding him from behind and touching him in so many places all at once, so all of his muscles were rigid.

While Gael and Veera were having a conversation about some obscure type of music that Chris wasn’t following, Darren moved his hand to his chest, spreading his fingers wide. “Hey, relax. I’m not gonna tickle you, I promise,” he whispered close to his ear.

Chris almost shivered at the proximity and took a small breath, trying to relax. He knew that his fear of being tickled wasn’t the problem, but he played along, “Promise?”  
  
“Promise,” Darren murmured, pulling Chris closer. He knew that Darren did this with everyone; he had no problem being close to people, and he was extremely good at making everyone feel comfortable. Chris wasn’t used to hanging out with someone like that, though. It would take some time to get used to it.


	3. Chapter 3

In mid-October, they all decided to go out to a club. They had just turned in their first set of essays and they needed to celebrate.

The girls all decided to get ready together, and they gathered in Eden’s room half an hour before they had to leave. When Chris went to say hi after he had finished getting dressed, there were various packages of make-up strewn all over the floor and the bed.

“What's that?” Chris asked, pointing to an intricate-looking torture machine.

“It's an eyelash curler. Do you wanna try it?” Gael asked, grinning up at him.

“No, thanks,” he chuckled. “Do I look okay?” he asked then, tugging on his shirt. He was met with a few seconds of silence.

“Don't you have something tighter?” Eden asked.

Chris shook his head. “This is literally the only shirt I own.”

“Go ask Darren if he has something for you to wear.”

Chris wouldn't have usually listened to her, but he did feel self-conscious about his outfit for the night. He had a rough idea of how people dressed when they went to a club, and a loose unironed shirt wasn't it.

He sighed and went to Darren's room.

“Come in!” Darren called out.

When Chris pushed the door open, Darren was dancing shirtless to some indie song, swaying his hips as he drank from a can of beer.

“You're supposed to be getting ready,” Chris told him, smiling in amusement and pretending very hard not to stare at Darren’s torso.

“I am getting ready. This is my pre-club ritual,” Darren answered, grinning at him.

Chris eyed the beer and shook his head when Darren offered him some. “Eden told me to come and ask if you have something tighter for me to wear,” he said, pretending to be just a bit annoyed.

“Like, a shirt?” Darren asked, opening his wardrobe and waving Chris inside. “Don't know if you’ll like the ones I have but feel free to take something.”

It was hard for Chris to focus on choosing from Darren's clothes when Darren was still dancing around the room, the muscles of his back shifting under the tanned skin, but thankfully there weren’t that many things to choose from. “What are you wearing?” Chris asked.

“Oh, just a t-shirt probably,” Darren said, taking another sip of his beer.

“Okay...I'll try on this one,” he sighed, getting a purple long-sleeved shirt. “Um, I'll be back,” he said before leaving the room with it and going back to his own.

It was tight—tighter than what Chris was usually comfortable with—but he didn't think it looked bad, so he went back to Eden’s room to ask the girls’ opinions.

“Damn boy!” Eden whistled. “You look _good._ ”

“You sound surprised,” Chris deadpanned.

Eden just grinned at him before going back to putting on mascara; her mouth immediately dropped open as she looked at what she was doing in the mirror. Gael had the same expression in the bathroom. Chris felt like he was surrounded by yawning sloths.

“Guys, we need to leave in ten minutes,” Veera said. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I’m here!” Darren shouted from his room. “Johnny said that he and Renée are meeting us at the train station, and I think Team Lads are at Hive already,” he added, eventually joining them in Eden’s room. To Chris’s disappointment, a white t-shirt was now covering his torso.

Team Lads were four Scottish guys that did everything together. Same course, same classes, same nights out. Different flats, though. Chris wasn’t really friends with them, but they shared some classes and they seemed all right. They had taken a special liking to Darren, though, and they were friends with Robyn too. Robyn was the sixth, mysterious flatmate. She barely came out of her room, but when she did, it was to leave the flat and go hang out with people from her course. The few times she actually hung out with them in the kitchen, though, Chris almost always ended up with tears in his eyes from how much he was laughing.

Finally, everyone seemed ready to leave. They had to run for the train, but they made it on time and half of the uni was on there with them. The walk to Hive looked like a big herd was moving and shouting and drinking already, and Chris stayed close to Eden, who was talking to a guy in her course.

“Oh my god, is this your first time at Hive?” the guy asked Chris. He nodded. “A lot of people hate it but it’s my favorite place. You’ll love it, don’t worry,” he said, before joining another group of people.

“Why do people hate it?” Chris asked Eden.

“Oh, they say it’s dirty and there’s puke and alcohol all over the floor. Some say that it was originally called HIV, but then someone added an E to make it less obvious,” she chuckled, and Chris wrinkled his nose.

“Why are we going there again?” he asked.

“Because everyone’s going. It’ll be fun, don’t worry,” she insisted, taking his arm and tugging him forward with the rest of their group.

The club wasn’t as bad as he was expecting after Eden’s description. It did smell like alcohol, and it wasn’t particularly big, but it looked okay, and the two songs he’d heard since they had come in were good and made him at least sway in his seat.

“I wanna drink tonight,” he announced. He'd been on edge since they had stepped inside, and he wanted to see if the alcohol worked as well on his inhibitions as it did on everyone else’s.

“Oh my god!” Gael squealed. Chris was pretty sure she was pretending to be drunker than she actually was. “Darren, Chris wants to drink!” she shouted in Darren's ear.

Darren turned around to smile at him, and Chris felt all warm inside. “Can I buy you your first drink?” he asked him.

“Just get me something I’ll like,” Chris said after he nodded.

“Say no more!” Darren said happily before disappearing into the crowd. He came back a few minutes later holding a glass full of what looked like coke and handed it to Chris. “There you go. I think you'll like this one, it's just rum and coke.”

Chris stared down at it for a second before he took a sip. One of his eyes squinted at the taste, but he managed to swallow it down. “It's...okay.” Darren was staring at him with an amused smile, and Chris tried to smile back at him.

“Just keep drinking, it's gonna get better in a while,” Eden told him, and Chris took another sip, and then another one. It was true. He was getting used to the taste and to the weird sensation in his nose, and soon enough his face and throat felt warm.

“There he goes, he stopped squinting,” Darren said happily, clasping a hand on his shoulder. “Welcome to the adult world, man.”

“Thanks?” Chris said. It took him a while to feel the effects. He had no idea how much time had passed, but after another drink his limbs finally started to feel looser and his thoughts a little happier, and he followed a few of his friends to the dance floor. Dancing in a club was...interesting.

Some people clearly knew how to move and they made it look seamless, so Chris tried to copy them. He didn’t think he looked quite as natural as them, but he was having fun, so long as he didn’t think about the girl constantly bumping into his back and pushing him closer to Darren. Which wasn’t a bad thing, per se, but he would have loved to have some more space.

Darren must have taken his inching closer as an invitation and he grabbed Chris’s hands, shouting as he raised them and made him twirl. Chris laughed after he sorted out the confusion in his limbs, his eyes crinkled and his teeth bare, and then he returned the favor, seeing Darren move his hips as he took his time making the complete twirl.

Silly. They were being silly, Chris’s brain said, dancing like children in a club full of university students who only wanted to get drunk and make out with someone, but he ignored it. Darren kept shouting and whooping and singing him random lyrics, and they were just having fun and dancing their worries away.

“I need a break!” Chris shouted in his ear a few songs later. He wasn’t sure Darren had heard, but he had hopefully read his lips.

Darren stepped closer so he would be heard. “Come back here when you’re ready!” he said, then turned around to keep dancing.

When Chris got to one of the couches, where some of the girls were talking with drinks in their hands, he realized that he had sweat on his forehead and was out of breath.

“Are you having fun?” Eden asked him, moving one arm around his shoulders when he sat down next to her.

“Yeah, a lot! I was dancing with Darren and my brain is kinda woozy. It feels good!” he answered, eyeing her drink for a moment before he just grabbed the straw to take a sip. “Ooh, what is this?”

“Vodka lemon,” she replied, smiling at him. “Do you wanna get one? I can come with you to the bar.”

Chris shook his head, “No, no, I told Darren I’d go back. I can’t dance when I’m holding a drink, it’s hard enough already.”

While he stole another sip from her glass, Chris saw Eden take a look at the dance floor and smile - no, actually, she was smirking. “Um, you might wanna wait a bit more. I think you have time for a drink.”   
  
He turned around to try and see what she was talking about, and it took him a few seconds, but he eventually spotted Darren. Making out with a girl. And not just _a_ girl, but the one who was basically dancing on top of Chris earlier. “Wh- How? I was gone for like three seconds!” he spluttered.

“Hey, guy’s hot,” Eden shrugged. Gael, who was in a conversation with a girl from their course, looked at the dance floor when she saw both of them staring at the same spot. “Woo, get it, Darren!” she shouted. Chris felt like that was the perfect moment to look into the camera like he was in _The Office_.

Darren was dancing with him. He was supposed to wait for him to come back. So why was he making out with someone when Chris was sitting at a table full of people he didn't want to make out with, stealing someone else’s drink? Life was so unfair.

And their tongues—god, they looked like slugs. “Chris.”

“Am I staring?” he asked without taking his eyes off of them.

“You know you are,” Eden replied, before smiling teasingly. “Are you jealous?”

“Pfft. Please. I'm simply entranced. How do they go in time with the music?”

“It must be a talent,” she sighed, pushing her drink towards him. He grabbed it and took a long swig. “Why is no one making out with me?”

“Oh honey. We can go to a gay bar next time, don't worry,” she assured him.

“I don't need a gay bar, I need a gay man. Boy. Guy.” He was still staring at Darren, who had finally stopped making out and was just dancing with the girl now. Chris wondered if his tongue hurt.

“Which you can find in a gay bar.”

“We can't go with Darren though. He’ll steal all the pretty boys’ hearts and then he'll find someone to make out with and I'll be sitting at a table watching him as he feeds his tongue to the man of my dreams.” The drink was almost gone and he desperately needed another one.

“Darren's straight,” Eden told him as if she were talking to a five-year-old, “He won't make out with a guy in a gay bar.”

Chris turned around to narrow his eyes at her, “He’s not straight.”

“Yes, he is,” she insisted, pronouncing the sentence like she was saying something known by everyone.

“Are you sure?” Chris asked. It had never crossed his mind that Darren could be straight. Maybe he was stereotyping, but Darren was a theatre kid through and through, and he had grown up in San Francisco. Besides, Chris had a feeling.

Eden nodded. “Trust me, I've stalked his Facebook enough to know.”

“If you say so,” he said, still not entirely convinced, as he turned back around. Both Darren and the girl were gone, but Chris didn't even have time to panic before he found Darren on the other side of the dance floor, dancing with some of their friends. He decided to go back and join them, and he felt a little warm in his stomach when Darren grinned as soon as he saw him.

“She was cute,” he said immediately, and if Darren didn't realize how fake the words were, then Chris’s destiny really was to be an actor.

“Yeah...I had to run because she kept biting me, though,” Darren explained, then he widened his eyes. “Do you think she's a vampire? Holy shit, Chris, give me some garlic, quick!”

Chris had to move away as he laughed, because Darren's hands were trying to get to his pockets as though he'd really find some garlic in there. Apparently, laughing was not what Darren wanted Chris to do.

“Chris, fuck, I'm serious! You have to protect me! Have you seen how pale she was? She _has_ to be a vampire!” Darren continued, completely serious.

How drunk must one be, Chris thought, to actually believe he had just made out with a vampire? Alcohol was still a mystery to him. “We’re in Scotland, Darren, you can't freak out like this over someone being pale,” Chris said, trying not to laugh, although it was proving very difficult between the drinks he'd had and Darren’s facial expressions.

The song change, along with the cheers of Team Lads, who had joined their little dancing circle and were communicating only in very manly shouts with Darren, managed to distract him from the vampire debacle.

As the night went on, the variety of songs playing was starting to become very confusing. They were going from heavy bass lines to 90s hits to recent ballads and then back to 70s tunes. Chris didn't even know how long they were there, but at one point, almost everyone he knew was up and moving in time with the loud bass of the song. The vibrations were deafening, the room was dark, and Chris was starting to get lost in his head, until he felt someone press up against him from behind.

Darren had his hands on Chris’s waist and was moving with him, so close that Chris could feel the curve of his stomach and his crotch. It was all new for Chris and he didn't know whether Darren was just trying to have fun or if he thought that Chris was someone else, so he turned around. He realized as he did that he didn't know where to put his arms, but Darren's hands ran up his sides, almost tickling him on the way to guide his arms around his neck.

“My shirt looks good on you,” Darren said. It wasn't a whisper, but with the music so loud and all the people around them, Chris wasn't sure he had heard correctly. “You're cute.” Darren looked up at that moment, his darkened eyes boring into Chris's.

“Thanks? Um, you too, Darren,” Chris stammered. He had no idea what was going on. He thought about it later, too, when he was lying on his bed in the dark, with his ears ringing and his brain still buzzing. Was Darren being his usual flamboyant and obnoxious self? Was he genuinely just complimenting Chris in a hey-my-friend-is-cute kind of way? Was he trying and failing to live out his gay fantasy with his closest gay friend there? He fell asleep with a thousand unanswered questions.


	4. Chapter 4

The active drag scene was definitely not something he was expecting. That the campus’ usually deserted pub would be so packed during a drag night was also something he definitely was not expecting. What he _was_ expecting, however, was for Darren to drag him to one of the couches in the front row, right next to the stage.

“Darren, they're gonna pick on us, come on,” Chris whined. Eden had managed to escape to one of the tables in the back with some of her friends and Chris was extremely jealous.

“I know! It's gonna be fun!” Darren insisted, grabbing Chris's wrist and tugging him down.

It was fun. The show was like nothing Chris had ever seen, with lip-syncing to famous songs and movie dialogues and over-the-top dance moves, including splits and a lot of grinding.

At one point, one of the queens strode towards them, and Chris was already laughing out loud when she planted one of her heels in the space between Darren’s spread legs and dragged her hand up her thigh, staring into his eyes as she lip-synced. She then proceeded to stand on the couch and thrust her hips twice, three times in Darren’s face while he just laughed, his eyes crinkling and all his teeth showing, and tried to hold his pint of beer out of her hips’ way.

He didn’t know how it was possible, but Darren’s face got even happier when, god knows how, she suddenly lifted one leg and turned around until her ass was in Chris’s face and she could put her other heel down on the other side of Chris’s legs. Chris cheered loudly before he burst out laughing when she bent down and began twerking. He didn’t know how she was managing not to fall off the couch, but frankly he didn’t quite care when her ass was right in his face.

The queen jumped off the couch after a few beats and turned around to wink at them before she proceeded to harass a few other members of the audience, leaving Chris and Darren laughing and cheering for her.

“She’s so good!” Darren shouted at him over the music.

Chris nodded, his eyes still focused on the performance, but he leaned closer to Darren anyway. “She is!”

“We should try it! You’d look hot as fuck!” Darren continued, grinning.

Chris laughed and then the music stopped—the piece over with the queen breathing heavily while lying on the ground, her legs bent and her chest rising and falling quickly. They stood up to clap and whistle in appreciation, imagining what it would be like if it were them in her place.

At the end of the night, when most of the crowd had left, someone started DJing for the remaining people. Chris, Darren, and Eden all stood up to dance, making up silly dance moves and just getting lost in the beat and the tunes for a while. Eden never seemed to want to stop dancing, but Darren was sweaty and Chris had lost all energy, so they plopped down on one of the couches. Darren spread out as usual, draping both arms over the back of the couch, and that meant that one of them was behind Chris.

He was tired and happy and didn’t see what was wrong with leaning against Darren’s shoulder, so he just did it. Darren didn’t seem to mind, so Chris closed his eyes until he felt the couch dip beside him.

“Oh my god, you guys are adorable!” It was one of the queens. She had performed a remixed dialogue from Legally Blonde that Chris had found hilarious.

He smiled at her, and as Darren moved to look at her as well Chris had to shift, leaning back against the couch and sadly not on Darren’s shoulder anymore.

“Thanks!” Darren said, and Chris knew that he was grinning.

“Are you guys a couple?” the queen asked.

Chris shook his head. “No, but everyone keeps asking the same thing,” he chuckled. It was true. They had gotten it at least three other times, and two of those were from people they were actually friends with. He knew that he and Darren were close, but, well. Not in a couple sense. Even if maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

“Oh my god, I know what you mean! Me and Scott are the bestest of friends so everyone always asks us if we’re together but we’re like, ew, no, like, we know we wouldn’t work as a couple but we’re still close, you know?” she rambled before offering them her hand. “I’m Mark, by the way.”  
  
It took Chris a moment to remember that yeah, there was a guy underneath all the make-up and the clothes. They both shook Mark’s hand and said their names before he and Chris talked a bit more. Darren’s absence in the conversation made itself painfully known to Chris when Mark asked him about his sexuality. He would’ve died to know Darren’s answer, but Mark didn’t seem as interested, and he just kept talking to Chris for a while before excusing himself to go back to dancing.

“You still with me?” Chris asked Darren, who had his eyes closed and his head tilted back to the ceiling.

Darren hummed. “Yeah, but I’m tired. Can we go back to the flat?”

“If you manage to drag Eden away from the dance floor, sure.”

Just as he turned around to see where she was, Eden did a slut drop. It would take a while.

Later, all three of them stumbled inside the flat, exhausted but content. On the short walk through campus, Darren’s arm had sneaked around Chris’s waist so he could rest his head on Chris’s shoulder and keep his eyes closed. Chris tried to protest, saying that Darren still needed to look where he was going, but in the end, Darren’s warm hold and sleepy pleas won Chris over. He exchanged a meaningful look with Eden, who was looking at them with a smirk.

She abandoned them to go shower, lifting her arms up in the air as she walked through the corridor. “It was such a good night. So much _gay_ in the air,” she said airily before disappearing into her room.

Chris grinned and prodded Darren. “Darren, c’mon, we’re inside. Go to your room.”

“Mmmh. Can you carry me to bed?” Darren mumbled.

Chris sighed, but he couldn’t say no. He walked Darren to his room and opened the door with some difficulty. “There you go, you can let go of me now,” Chris said quietly, trying to get Darren to at least sit on his bed.

Instead of letting go, Darren let his hands slide down to Chris’s arm and grasped it tightly to tug him down as he lay on the bed.

“Darren, come on, I wanna go to bed too,” Chris sighed, although he couldn’t help but smile at Darren’s antics.

“You can sleep here,” Darren said, finally opening his eyes completely to look up at him.

“No, I can’t.”  
  
“Why not? I know you want to. It smells good,” Darren reminded him.

Chris couldn’t really argue with that, but he didn’t know if that was a line he was ready to cross yet. “People will think we’ve slept together, Darren.”

“So? Let them. They already think we’re secretly dating. C’mon, Chris, I just want someone to cuddle with. Please?”  
  
“Fine,” Chris sighed. “Can I at least go put on my pajamas? I don’t wanna sleep in my jeans.”

“Promise you’ll come back?” Darren asked, grinning up at him.

“I promise,” Chris replied, rolling his eyes. At last, Darren let go, and Chris was free to go to his room for a moment of quiet. He got changed, brushed his teeth, and made sure he still smelled fine. He had never slept in a bed with someone that wasn’t his family. And the fact that the person he would be doing it with was _Darren_ , who had probably had so many people sleep with him that he wasn’t even keeping count, it was…intimidating, to say the least.

Would Chris be a good cuddle buddy? Did he kick in his sleep, did he snore? Would he even be _able_ to sleep, with his insomnia kicking up again in the last few weeks? Why did Darren have to ask him to do something like that? He knew that if he didn’t hurry up, Darren would come to his room and sleep in _his_ bed, so he stepped out of the door and made his way back to the other end of the flat.

Where Darren was, on his bed, wearing nothing but his boxers. Great.

“If I were an old lady, I would be scandalized,” Chris joked, trying to hide the fact that he couldn’t stop staring at the only clothed area of Darren’s body.

“But you’re not. Turn the lights off and come here, I wanna sleep,” Darren murmured, scratching his belly where a dark trail of hair ran down from his navel, between the deep V of his hips, and disappeared into the fabric.

Chris did as he was told. He turned the lights off, stepped over Darren’s discarded clothes, and got into bed, basically on the edge. Darren huffed and pulled him closer, until Chris’s back was pressed against his chest.

It was different than their usual cuddle piles. For one, no one else was there. No one else even knew they were there. The second thing was that it was dark, and Chris couldn’t focus on anything but the steady sound of Darren’s breath and the rise and fall of his chest.

“Chris? Are you sleeping?” Darren’s quiet voice spoke after a few minutes of silence.

“No, I’m awake,” Chris answered just as softly.

“Do I make you uncomfortable? When I touch you? I know I can be clingy.”

Chris was not expecting that question. He didn’t think Darren noticed how rigid Chris got almost every time Darren stepped into his personal space; he didn’t even think Darren noticed how touchy-feely he got. He thought it was just natural for Darren to be like that, but for Darren to be aware of it put things into perspective. Maybe Darren wasn’t that chill, happy dude all the time. Maybe things went on in his brain that he didn’t let on.

“No. No, you don’t. I’m just not used to it,” Chris said, “I quite like it, actually,” he admitted.

“So this is okay?”  
  
“This is okay.”

“Good. You tell me if I’m an asshole, okay?”

Chris hummed in affirmation.

“G’night.”

“Goodnight.”

* * *

 

The truth was, Chris didn’t mind it at all when Darren got close to him. Darren was without a doubt his best friend there, and feeling that someone cared about him and wasn’t afraid to show him affection, even in small ways...felt nice. But Chris didn't know if that was the only thing that Darren was to him.

Because he never had anyone else show him affection like that before. He never had anyone else making him feel that _important_ , like he wasn’t a burden but someone to look forward to seeing. And Darren made him feel all of that, like Chris could find a thousand more friends and then a thousand lovers, like someone someday would hold him the way Darren was doing in that moment, and maybe Chris wanted that person to be Darren.

Maybe Chris wanted Darren to hold him like that every night, and maybe he wanted to hold Darren back just as often.


	5. Chapter 5

In retrospect, they were both idiots.

On Halloween, they decided to throw a party in their flat. No costumes, those were done the two days before in a club and at the Union. This was just an occasion to drink one more time and finish off the weekend with all their friends.

Somehow, Chris found himself in Eden’s room with Johnny, the three of them all tipsy and cuddled up on her bed. They talked about sexuality and Johnny’s girlfriend and then his ex-boyfriend, and then Eden’s experiences.

“What about you, Chris? Do you like someone?” The awkward silence Johnny was met with must have been enough of an answer. “Oh my god, do we know him?”   
  
“Yeah…” Chris sighed.

“Please tell me he’s not in our flat,” Eden begged with her eyes closed, clearly afraid of his answer. Chris couldn’t do that to her.

“He’s not in our flat.” 

“Oh thank god,” she breathed, looking at him and smiling. “So who is it?”

“I’m not telling you.” She pouted and proceeded to repeat the question at least five more times, followed by the same answer from Chris. Johnny tried to stop her from asking again, and she finally got tired, taking the conversation back to someone in their course. Darren’s name was flashing over and over again in Chris’s head, and he wasn’t really listening.

Eventually, Johnny had to go, leaving Chris and Eden alone on her bed. They were both staring at the ceiling in silence, as if they knew what Chris was about to confess. “I have to tell you something.”

“He’s in our flat.”

“He’s in our flat,” Chris confirmed with a sigh. “I tried so hard, Eden, I swear, I just…”  
  
“It’s Darren, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he answered, turning around to look at her. “Do you think he knows?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t really had a good talk in a while, but you guys are spending a lot of time together,” she said.

“Yeah, but… I don’t know. He’s Darren. He spends a lot of time with everyone. And we still don't know if he's into guys. And even if he was, I don’t know that he’d be into me,” he explained.

“Why don’t you try to tell him that you like him?”

“Are you crazy? No way. No, I’ll never do that,” he refused, shaking his head.

“All right, god, calm down. I can try to investigate?” she offered.

Chris nodded, even if he wasn’t very optimistic. “Okay… Can you promise not to tell anyone, though? I just— I don’t want anyone to know.”

“Of course, sweetie. I never tell secrets.”

* * *

 

“You both like each other!”

The slamming of the door wasn’t as loud as the silence that fell over the room.

It felt a bit extreme, luring him into her room just to leave him alone with Darren, who was sitting on Eden’s chair staring at him. Chris didn't know if he was in on the joke and just wanted to see his reaction up close, but he had a hard time believing that what Eden had said was true. He still mentally crossed his fingers though.

“Do you really like me?” Darren asked, pulling his legs up on the chair and sitting cross-legged.

Chris raised an eyebrow. If Darren was trying to get a confession out of him, well, Chris might as well satisfy him, since Eden had apparently not kept the secret. “I thought I’d made that obvious?”

“No, you really didn't,” Darren chuckled. “I mean, I just thought you, like, looked up to me or something.”

“Do you think I willingly just sleep in the same bed as someone I look up to? God, why would I try to spend all my time with you, Darren?” Darren's apparent stupidity was helping him relax.

“‘Cause I'm really fun to be around? ‘Cause I look like an idiot half the time and make you feel better about yourself? I don't know, man, the possibilities are endless,” he shrugged.

“You're an idiot.”

“I just said that. But hey, I'm not the only one who didn't realize this! You didn't know I liked you either. Which is a unbelievable, really, because I was really fucking obvious.”

Chris felt like someone had just lit up a fire right beside his heart. “Well, no one’s ever liked me before. I don't know how all that... _flirting_ works.”

“Honestly, flirting is one thing, but I serenaded you so many times!” Darren insisted.

“Darren, I don't know if you've noticed, but you serenade everyone. Just the other night you serenaded one of the guys from security when they shut down the party. And he wasn't even the cute one.”

“Okay, fine, fine. So we were both idiots, big surprise. Can we get to the kissing now?”

“Oh god. Can we have, like, a master class first?”

Darren laughed and went to sit down on the bed beside him. “You'll be fine, I promise. I'm an excellent kisser, so all you have to do is follow my lead.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Hi, I'm Darren, I serenade 50-year-olds on their jobs, and I'm an excellent kisser,” he mocked him. “Why do I even like you?”

“There's just something about me. I also smell okay most of the time.”

Chris laughed this time, then it was silent for a moment.

“You're leaving in a month,” Chris murmured. He didn't want to think about it right now, when he had just found out that his crush was reciprocated, but that thought was pushing its way forward with surprising speed.

“More than a month. And you're coming back for Christmas too, so we get two more months together.”

“And then I come back here, and we don't see each other for at least five more months.”

“But then we get three months together.”

“And then I come back here.”

“Are you saying you don't wanna be with me?”

“No, no, I do. It just...makes me sad.”

“Kissing helps sadness.”

“Well, how would I know that without the master class you’re refusing to give me?”

“Fine, okay. Kissing is when two people mush their lips together and then happiness happens. Good, you’re ready to test it now.”

“Shut up, Darren.”

“ _Make me_.”

“You are a clown.”

“ _Chris_ ,” he laughed, “I just wanna kiss you. If you don't want to, that’s _fine_ ; just tell me and I'll back off, but just make a decision, please.”

“I'm just nervous, okay? This is a big deal.”

“I know, I know, but you keep licking your lips and it's driving me insane.”

“Should I not do that…?” he asked, narrowing his eyes in question.

“I mean, I could lick them for you if you want.”

“You are disgusting.”

“And yet, here I am, about to give you your first kiss,” he sang, leaning closer.

Chris scoffed. “God, don't remind me.”

“Hey,” Darren murmured as he cupped Chris’s cheek. “I'm happy it's me.”

“I'm happy it's you, too.”

And then they kissed. They leaned in together, closing their eyes, and at first it was just a gentle press of lips against lips, a long peck, before Darren pulled away and then moved back in, actually kissing him, moving his lips against Chris who was starting to follow his lead, and it felt weird and wet and a little awkward but amazing all the same, to know that it was _Darren_ , there with Chris, and all they could hear in the room were their breaths and the smack of lips on lips, quiet, wet pops as they moved against each other.

Later, when their lips were red, Chris’s skin felt hot, and Darren’s hair was even wilder than usual, Chris asked a question that was buzzing in his mind, “How did Eden...when did you tell her that you liked me?”

“Oh, like, half an hour ago,” Darren answered, his knee bumping against Chris’s leg as he spoke. “I told Veera last week though. Apparently she tried to talk to Eden to find out if she knew anything, but Eden wouldn’t talk.”

“Oh, so she _did_ keep it a secret,” Chris murmured. “I asked her not to tell anyone.”

Darren nodded. “That explains why she still wouldn’t tell me if you liked me back after I told her tonight.”  
  
“Aw, she’s such a good friend.” Chris smiled. He really appreciated her not telling Darren. It would’ve been so embarrassing to be in a room with Darren knowing and him being in the dark about it.

“Yeah... But do you _really_ wanna talk about our friends when you could be kissing me instead?” Darren asked, smiling brightly at him.

“My lips hurt, Darren,” Chris deadpanned.

“I’ll kiss ‘em better.”


	6. Chapter 6

“We should go out and do something, just the two of us,” Darren announced a few days later. They had been alone a lot, but hadn't really been out of the flat that much, mostly enjoying the fact that now they could kiss and be close whenever they liked, and none of their friends would be offended at not being invited.

Chris, who was sitting on Darren’s bed and trying to read a review of the last movie they had watched in class, looked up at him with a raised brow. “That’s not how you ask someone out, Darren.”

Darren, bless his soul, laughed and went to sit down beside him on the bed. “You’re right,” he said, taking Chris’s hand, “Christopher Paul Colfer, will you go on a date with me?”

Chris had said yes, obviously. And that’s how they found themselves in the National Museum of Scotland one morning when they had no classes, touching rocks and staring up at a flying hippo. Well, it wasn’t flying, per se. It was supposed to be swimming, actually, but the underwater habitat was recreated by hanging the marine life from the ceiling. Which included a hippo.

They had fun in the kids’ section, where there was a piano you could play by jumping on seven giant keys placed on the floor. Darren tried to direct Chris to jump at the same time as him to play a few chords, but they failed miserably.

It was a good date. They even held hands at one point, and Chris felt a thrill at the fact that the people around them would know they weren’t just two friends hanging out. They both got a hot chocolate to drink on the way back, and when Darren kissed him when they got to Chris’s room, it tasted like sugar and a windy morning.

Chris wanted more of it. He tugged Darren inside with a hand on the back of his neck and opened his mouth, knowing he would get the hint. Sure enough, Darren’s tongue slid alongside his as they clumsily sat down on Chris’s bed. Darren leaned back, pulling Chris with him, and woah, they were horizontal. That hadn’t happened yet. They had kissed in the past few days and had cuddled on Darren’s bed, but nothing happened those times apart from a few pecks.

But _this_. This was making out. It was warm and wet and so weird. Chris had to concentrate on not falling on top of Darren as he shifted his knees so that he didn’t risk falling off the bed, but when he found the right position he just let go and let Darren’s tongue SWIPE all his worries aside. Darren’s hand was on his jaw, his fingers just barely tickling his neck, pulling him closer and moving him how he wanted, and it felt so liberating to just let him guide him and not worry about doing something wrong.

But Chris still wanted more. He had spent years dreaming of someone to be with and, now that he had it, it was like he couldn't stop.

So he followed the only thing he knew: porn. He broke the kiss and only looked at Darren's face for a split second before he dived down and kissed his neck. It felt right, so he did it again, and again, moving lower and to the side and back. Darren let out a hum, slid his hand to the nape of Chris's neck, and kept him close, so it _must_ have been right.

That seemed like enough daring for one day, so he went back to Darren's mouth. Darren let out another sound into this kiss, a mixture between a whine and a moan, and rolled them over.

When he was lying half on top of Chris, he pushed himself up on his elbow, his free hand resuming its position on Chris’s cheek. Darren was the one to break the kiss this time, and Chris didn’t even have time to open his eyes and protest before he felt Darren’s lips on his own neck.

He started with a few light kisses, just like he had done, but Chris soon felt Darren’s lips settle on a spot near the base of his neck, where his shirt had moved out of the way. A breathy gasp escaped his lips when he felt Darren begin to suck. It only lasted a few seconds, however, and then Darren’s lips were on his chin, and his cheek, and his lips, and then his cheek again.

Chris opened his eyes and saw Darren grinning down at him. “I was starting to get carried away,” he said quietly.

“I didn’t mind,” Chris said bluntly, surprising himself.

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Darren said, still grinning, “but I’m half-hard already, and I don’t wanna scare you away after not even a week of dating.”

Chris didn’t even try to pretend that his face hadn’t gone red. Hearing Darren say that just made a whole new range of feelings flash inside his head. He did try to ignore them and deflect though, “Hearing you, people would think you’re hiding a monster down there.”

Darren laughed, ducked his head, then looked up at Chris from under his long, long lashes, “Well…”  
  
“God, why am I even dating you?”

* * *

 

They made out a lot in the next few days. Basically every time they were alone in the same room, the only thing it took was for them to share one kiss and then they were gone, grabbing shirts and sucking skin, and yet, they never went past that. Until they did.

It was enough for Chris to throw caution to the wind and adjust himself once when he was sitting on the bed with Darren in his lap. He was wearing skinny jeans, and it was so uncomfortable that he just had to. Darren, apparently seeing Chris’s arm move when he blinked, looked down and saw the bulge.

Chris saw Darren look up at him, then down again, then back up at Chris, and somewhere in the middle Darren had made his decision, “I wanna suck your dick.”

Chris’s attempt to make it more comfortable inside his jeans was made useless by Darren’s words, which just made his cock swell up more. “Really?” The question came out breathier than he’d wanted.

“Yes, Chris, fuck, you have no idea,” Darren answered, with his lips wet and his eyes dark and Chris wanted it too, _so much_ , so he nodded.

“Yeah?” Darren asked, looking like the happiest man on Earth.

“Yeah,” Chris echoed.

The minutes between that and Chris lying naked on the bed with a shirtless Darren between his legs were kind of a blur in Chris’s mind. There was Darren cursing and whispering to himself, and Chris’s feeling of relief that Darren just genuinely really _liked_ him, and then goosebumps on Chris’s skin when Darren kissed all over it, from his neck to his chest and down to his stomach. Chris’s muscles quivered harder the closer Darren got to his cock, which by this point was resting on his stomach, red and hard and aching to be touched.

And then Darren’s tongue was on him and Chris couldn’t feel any other part of his body. The way Darren’s breath was puffing out on the warm skin, his hand holding him so carefully, the way his tongue was moving, up then down, and his lips closing around the tip, and his tongue again, all around it, it was the only thing that mattered.

Chris couldn’t even close his eyes—he was just staring at the unfocused ceiling—but he willed himself to look down when Darren sank down, and half of his cock disappeared into Darren's mouth, lips wrapped tightly around his shaft.

“Fuck, you’re long,” Chris heard Darren whisper as he pulled back and licked his lips, starting to move his hand slowly up and down, before he added his mouth back to the process.

Chris felt like his body was trying to implode, as if wanting to gather all of its cells under Darren’s touch, and he let it do it, moving his hand to Darren’s hair, trying not to tug and pull but it was so hard when he could focus on nothing but associating the wet sounds coming from Darren’s mouth to the way the touch felt on his skin.

It felt like Darren could’ve gone on forever, like there was nothing that could’ve stopped him from sucking Chris’s cock. Chris was so, so grateful, and he almost felt guilty when he felt heat gather in the pit of his stomach.

“Darren,” he said, his voice coming out in a high breath, “Darren, fuck, I’m gonna come, please…”

It didn’t look like Darren wanted to pull back, but he did, just in time to stroke Chris through his orgasm—white stripes of come gathering on his stomach, down his cock, on Darren’s hand—as Chris opened his lips in a silent scream, his back arching and chest filling up, before his muscles trembled and he fell back down on the bed.

Darren’s kisses on his hips felt like they were coming from another dimension for a while, until they got more real and Darren’s grinning face was in front of his. “Can I kiss you?” he asked.

Chris let out an affirmative hum, and he was only distracted by the taste of Darren’s mouth for a second before he kissed back, lazy and slow. “I have to—” he mumbled against Darren’s lips, “You, you need to come, yeah?”

“I _really_ need to come,” Darren chuckled, and Chris only then noticed how red his lips were, “but you don’t _have_ to do anything.”

“I wanna. Take your pants off,” Chris said, touching Darren’s hips. There was a smile on Darren’s face as he stood up to unbutton his jeans and then pulled them off along with his underwear, and he was watching Chris, waiting for his reaction.

Chris didn’t know if Darren was satisfied when he finally got it, because he was too busy staring at his cock, that his hand had immediately reached out to touch. He knew now how Darren had felt when he’d sucked him off, looking like a starved man. It was like there was a pull, and Chris’s lips parted automatically. Darren had just sat back down on the bed when Chris’s mouth was on him, and it tasted so foreign and so right at the same time, that he spontaneously started sucking and bobbing his head up and down, careful not to take too much and disrupt his momentum.

Darren was making sounds Chris had never imagined coming from him, but they were only spurring him on, uncaring of having spit everywhere and of the way he must’ve looked, knelt over Darren’s lap like that. Soon, too soon, Darren was chanting his name, and he had to pull back. His hand kept moving and he felt Darren’s cock pulse in his hand as he came, letting out a loud cry.

Chris pulled his hand away when Darren’s breath stuttered, awkwardly hovering over Darren’s thigh as Chris stared at his face. Darren, leaned against the wall, let his head roll to the side to look back at Chris. He was still smiling when he lifted his hand to pull Chris close and kiss him again, pushing his tongue inside Chris’s mouth and moaning softly.

“That was amazing,” Darren whispered, their foreheads touching.

Chris grinned, “I can’t believe we just did that.”

Darren opened his eyes as they moved back—happy, matching smiles on their faces. “It was good, wasn’t it?”  
  
“It was _amazing_ ,” Chris whispered, before pressing his lips together for a second, “How did I do?”  
  
“You were so good, it felt fantastic,” Darren answered truthfully, resting his hand on Chris’s thigh and making him look down.

“Holy shit,” he whispered, looking back up at Darren and noticing the confused look on his face, “we’re naked.”

Darren laughed and leaned in, giving him a loud kiss on the lips. “You know what this calls for?”  
  
“What?” Chris asked.

“Naked cuddles.”

* * *

 

It was a whole new level of intimacy after that, Chris noticed. It was like he had granted Darren permission to be as clingy as he wanted, and, instead of being bothered by it, Chris was basking in all the attention he got.

Once, Chris was standing with some people from his course outside of the studio where their theatre class would be taking place, waiting for the class before them to be let out. When the door opened, Chris was telling one girl how _Life Is a Dream_ wasn’t a real depiction of Polish society, but of Spanish society, and had she seriously not even googled it before class?

He only turned around when he saw someone approaching him out of the corner of his eye, and a smile immediately appeared on his mouth when he saw that it was Darren. He didn’t even have time to talk though, before Darren had already come and gone, dropping a hurried kiss to his hairline and mumbling about how he had to rush to his next class and he'd see him later.

Still, he smiled when the girl he was talking to asked him if that was his boyfriend and he could say yes.

Despite it feeling wonderful, he felt as if not everyone appreciated him and Darren being together. Gael, for one, didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was staring at them during one of their movie nights. They were all gathered in various seats around a computer screen in their kitchen, watching _Chicago_ , and at first, Darren had sat down on Chris’s lap. When he realized that wasn’t working, he slid down to the floor and sat between Chris’s legs, and Chris reached down to play with Darren’s curls. Gael watched them for a while, and Chris even caught her eye a few times, but she never stopped.

Halfway through the movie, they took a break and Johnny, who was sitting beside Chris, left his seat to Darren because he had to go. Darren happily sat down with his side completely pressed against Chris’s, who was looking at the frame frozen on the screen. “Richard Gere is so hot,” he sighed, looking back at Darren, who had tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowed.

“If you’re into older dudes, yeah…”

“He’s not _that_ old in this movie,” Chris argued. “And besides, yes, I am,” he added, smiling at Darren and then giving him a peck on the lips.

Darren laughed, and, when they started the movie again, he took Chris’s hand and rested his head on his shoulder. Chris glanced at the seats opposite them and saw Renée quickly look away.

He asked Eden about it the next day.

“Oh, they’ll get over it. I mean, Gael probably won’t, because she’s Gael, but Renée just needs some time.”  
  
“Some time for what?” Chris asked, confused.

“I really can’t tell you, but it’s nothing to worry about, okay? If it really bothers you, you can always ask her about it, but yeah, it’s not my place to tell you,” Eden said.

So Chris did. And apparently Renée had a crush on Darren and Chris hadn’t realized; he felt like a really shitty friend in that moment.

“Chris, honestly, it’s okay. I just have to get used to it; it’s not your fault,” she kept insisting. “He chose you, anyway. Even if I— He chose you. I’ll get over it.”

She did get over it, eventually, and Chris was so, so grateful for it, because he was sure he would have died of guilt if she hadn’t. But she was wonderful about it, and once again Chris realized how lucky he’d been to find himself so many good friends.


	7. Chapter 7

Darren wasn’t the only one being particularly touchy-feely. Chris found himself, more often than not, reaching for Darren’s hand when they walked close to each other or wrapping one arm around him as they waited for the train.

On one of those occasions, Chris’s hand wandered down to Darren’s pants, and he slipped it inside of Darren’s back pocket. Darren looked at him with one eyebrow raised, and Chris rolled his eyes, moving his hand back to Darren’s hips.

When they sat down on the train opposite Eden and Veera, Darren leaned close to whisper to him. “Don’t be ashamed, my ass is amazing and you’re allowed to touch it,” he said, then kissed his cheekbone and tried to avoid the shove Chris gave him, before joining the girls’ conversation with a grin.

Chris couldn’t really argue with that. Darren’s ass _was_ amazing. Chris had noticed it before, of course, and he wasn’t the only one in their friend group to do so. So the next time it happened, when Chris’s hand slipped down Darren’s shirt, Chris purposefully moved it inside Darren’s pocket and left it there.

Darren seemed way too happy about that new development. Whenever he could, he would nudge Chris’s hand and arch his back, so that Chris got the hint and complied with a laugh. It was also starting to become an issue though.

“Darren, shut up,” Chris hissed one night when they were making out, wearing nothing but their underwear. They were trying to be quiet, since it was 3am on a Tuesday, but Chris had to stop because every time he tried to move his hands away from Darren’s ass, Darren would start whining, and they couldn’t risk waking up Gael, given her bad mood lately.

“ _Chris_ ,” Darren replied with a pout that Chris could barely see in the feeble light coming from the window.

“Darren, you need to be quiet,” Chris whispered, “We can’t wake everyone up just because you want to hot glue my hands to your ass.”

“I’m just— I _really_ like it.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Chris deadpanned, then squeezed the soft skin, trying to convey the fact that he was joking. “Will you ever let me move them away though? I can’t stand to traumatize the elderly every time we step outside.”

Darren chuckled and sat up on Chris’s thighs. “It’s just never gotten the attention it deserves, so I’m seizing the opportunity now that I have it.”

Chris looked at him for a moment. “Are you trying to tell me that the millions of girls you’ve been with have never groped you the way that I grope you?”

“Well...kind of. There have been a few people with refined tastes, you see, but it was more of— They treated it like something to grab on to because it was the first thing they met.”

“I mean, yeah, it’s kinda hard to miss.” Chris winced at the pinch that followed his words.

“But you like it, don’t you?” Darren asked.

Chris sighed, “Yes, Darren, you have an extraordinary behind. I can’t believe we’ve stopped a perfectly good make out session just to talk about your butt.”

“Well, we’ll have to talk about it eventually if you’re gonna fuck it,” Darren said, wiggling his hips a little in excitement.

Chris’s eyebrows rose a few inches. “I’m gonna fuck it?”

“...You’re not? It’s fine if you don’t want to, I just thought—”

“I— yeah, I mean, I just—”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

They talked over each other until eventually they just started laughing at the same time, Darren bending down and laying over Chris, so that his breath puffed against his neck.

“You go first,” Darren said quietly, still smiling. Chris didn’t really want to go first, but he took a second to order his thoughts and then spoke.

“I just thought you’d want to fuck me. Since, you know, you’ve already done it and all that…” he said, shifting away slightly so he could look at him.

Darren smiled, his hand on Chris’s chest, “Well, I haven’t done that with a guy. And...I would really, really love to have your cock up my ass, Christopher.”

Chris snorted and pretended to push Darren away. “You’re so romantic I don’t know what to do with myself sometimes.”

“I know, I know. So is that a yes?” Darren asked with a grin.

“Yes, Darren, I will fuck you. But then you’ll fuck me, okay?”  
  
“Deal.”

* * *

 

It was a weekend when Alistair and Robyn had both gone home, and Gael was in the flat in front of theirs either having sex or fighting with her fuckbuddy. Chris and Darren had decided to have a night in and watch a movie with Eden, Veera, and Renée (who talked to them about her new crush, which made a weight lift off Chris’s chest).

“Well, boys,” Eden said once the movie was over and the popcorn finished, “we are having a sleepover up in Renée’s room and leaving you guys the flat for the whole night. Please use this opportunity wisely so you don’t have to wake me up during the week.”

And with a wink and some giggling, the three of them left, leaving Darren and Chris staring at each other. Chris broke the silence that had fallen.

“So, do you have a condom and lube?”

“I have everything,” Darren said, grabbing Chris’s hand and dragging him to his room, locking the door of the flat on the way.

Chris was smiling in excitement and, as soon as they were inside Darren’s room, he pushed Darren against the bathroom door, which shut with a click, and kissed him eagerly.

Darren moaned, immediately opening his mouth and pressing his tongue against Chris’s, who slid his hands down Darren’s sides and then behind him to grip his ass, tugging him closer.

While Chris was busy doing that, Darren was trying to take off both their t-shirts, so Chris pulled back and got rid of his own while Darren did the same.

Once they were both shirtless, Darren grabbed Chris’s arms to tug him toward the bed.

Chris went easily, settling on top of Darren whose hand was now on Chris’s cock, touching him over the fabric of his pants and making him grow harder as they kissed. Darren sat up to try and get Chris’s pants off, and Chris followed, looking down at Darren’s hands and seeing the shape of his own cock pressing up toward them. He wasn’t surprised then when it sprang up as soon as it was free from all confinement, and Darren was quick to grab it before he bent down and took it in his mouth, making Chris’s hips push forward as he moaned softly.

“Want it so bad,” Darren breathed after a few seconds of sucking. He kept his tongue flat against the length and moved lower to suck each of Chris’s balls in his mouth with wet slurps that only made more blood rush through Chris’s cock.

“Where— where’s the lube?” Chris asked with a gasp. Despite Darren’s mouth feeling wonderful, he desperately wanted to know what it felt like to actually be inside him.

Darren begrudgingly pulled back and stood up, walking over to the desk. Chris saw him slide one hand below the waistband of his sweatpants as he opened a drawer and grabbed a small bottle of clear liquid and a few condoms, dropping those on the floor beside the bed before passing Chris the lube.

“Feeling optimistic?” Chris asked with a raised brow, eyeing the condoms on the ground. Darren grinned as he took the rest of his clothes off, then grabbed Chris’s face to give him a loud kiss.

“Very,” he answered, lying back down on the bed and spreading his legs this time. Chris, who had pushed his pants and underwear off, settled between them and looked down, feeling his face flush despite himself.

“Um, Darren? Can you— would you mind...turning around? I can’t really see from here…” he mumbled, hoping Darren wouldn’t hate the idea of not facing Chris while he fingered him for the first time. But Darren just kept smiling that toothy smile of his and did as he was asked, getting on all fours and wiggling his ass, which was now on full display right in front of Chris.

He pretended to be busy spreading more lube than necessary on his fingers while he stared. The hole was smaller than he was expecting, and he was silently wondering how his cock would fit in there, since it looked unlikely for even one finger to get inside.

“You okay?” Darren asked after what had probably been a few minutes of silence.

“Yeah, sorry, yeah, I was just— um, just trying to convince myself this is really happening,” Chris said truthfully. He still struggled to believe that he was in a relationship sometimes, let alone having sex.

Darren smiled and spread his legs more in response. “It is. Now c’mon, go ahead.”

Chris didn’t need to be told twice. He pressed one finger against Darren’s hole, harder and harder until it slipped inside. He felt Darren take in a sudden breath as he clenched around his knuckle and waited a few moments before slowly pushing his finger in as far as it could go. “Is this okay?” he asked, trying to look at Darren’s face, even if he could only see part of his profile.

“Yeah, just— give me a second,” Darren breathed. Chris slowly felt him relax, although he clenched again slightly when Chris started to pull his finger back at Darren’s nod. Slowly, they worked out a rhythm, and soon enough Chris’s finger was sliding easily back and forth between the ring of muscles. “Another?” Darren asked after a while.

Chris silently complied, and, after a few seconds of pressing and prodding, a second finger managed to slide in alongside the first. While he waited for Darren to adjust, Chris moved his free hand to Darren’s hip, slotting his fingers against the raised skin of his V.

Darren leaned into the touch just slightly, curving his spine, so that Chris saw all the muscles shift under the skin of his back. “You can move,” Darren said, and Chris obliged, moving his fingers like he had before, then trying to push them apart, opening Darren up. Whenever he did that, Darren let out a small moan, and then he was starting to push back against Chris’s fingers. “Another one,” he asked again.

This time, he didn’t need to go slow or wait. His finger was swallowed beyond the ring of muscles, and it didn’t take much for there to be enough space inside for it. Chris’s cock was starting to twitch in interest again, and he was so close to asking Darren if he could please fuck him now, if he was ready. He didn’t need to though, because Darren spoke first.

“Chris, please,” he gasped, “want you inside me, please.” Chris immediately pulled his fingers out, ignoring Darren’s whimper and pushing on his hip to make him turn back around. Darren got the hint and lay flat on his back, spreading his legs once again while Chris picked up one of the condoms from the floor. His hands were slippery and wet from the lube, so he was having some difficulties opening it, but Darren thankfully took it from him and opened it easily, making a quick job of rolling it on to Chris’s cock.

He grabbed the lube next and spread some over the condom, making Chris wince at the cold touch, but then Darren leaned up to kiss him quickly and off-center, and Chris forgot about it. He followed Darren down in an attempt not to break the kiss, and as he did so his cock bumped the inside of Darren’s thigh, so close to his hole that Chris couldn’t wait anymore.

He took his cock in his hand and lined himself up, looking at Darren for support, or reassurance, or just a burst of courage. Darren looked back at him, his eyes wide and his cheeks pink, and let out a quiet _please_.

Chris pushed inside. Slowly, his cock slid inside of Darren, who had closed his eyes and grabbed Chris’s arms. Chris felt like a thousand hands were closed around his cock, squeezing him from all sides. Some distant part of his brain was telling him to move, but he ignored it until Darren started moving around him, in little circles of his hips.

Something snapped in Chris then, and he grabbed Darren’s hips then pulled his own hips back, watching his cock slide out of Darren until just the head was inside, and then he pushed back in, seeing it disappear. It was mesmerizing, and Chris was soon lost in a whirlwind of feelings and sounds coming from both him and Darren. _Darren_ , who was trusting him with this, opening himself up completely and letting Chris know how it felt with his moans and pants and chants of _yes, yes, fuck, please_ that just made Chris thrust faster, harder into him.

It felt as if the thousand hands he had felt before were all stroking him quickly, pushing on all the veins and ridges of his cock and making it so hard to focus on keeping up the movement of his hips, but something kept pulling him back, the sensation of being completely connected with Darren impossible to resist.

He didn’t hear Darren telling him, he only felt him clench down around him when he came with a short shout and then a series of stuttered _ah_ s that had Chris going crazy, had Chris’s hips stuttering as well as he came inside the condom with a few high cries and a few long thrusts into Darren, and then silence.

Chris let his arms give out and rested his head on Darren’s chest, which was moving quickly up and down.

“Holy fucking shit,” came Darren’s voice a few minutes later. Chris grinned slowly, with his eyes still closed, his heart still pounding in his ears.

“‘s good, wasn’t it?” Chris asked lazily, already knowing the answer.

“Good? Chris, I think I wanna be constantly impaled on your cock,” Darren said, a trace of awe in his voice.

Chris, still smiling, opened his eyes and glanced up at him. “Yeah, I think that can be arranged.”

Darren grabbed the hand that was on his chest and brought it to his mouth, pressing his smile against it in a close-mouthed kiss. Chris felt his chest burst with happiness.

* * *

 

A little over a week later, Darren was gone for the afternoon and Chris wasn’t really in the mood to hang out with other people, so he took the chance to catch up on internet stuff and write a bit. His antisocial mood was enough to stop him in front of the kitchen door when he heard voices coming from inside.

“Darren’s a fucking weirdo, but I can kinda see that. I still think it’s weird that wee innocent Chris has sex though.” It was Gael.

“I mean… I kinda see where you’re coming from, but are you sure you’re not just jealous that they have a functioning relationship?” Eden said in the voice of hers that meant she wanted the other person to stop talking. Chris only ever heard her use it with Gael.

Gael laughed, but it sounded fake. “Probably. I really need to find a nice guy.”

Chris rolled his eyes and went back to his room. He tried to stop thinking about Gael’s words, tried to distract himself with cat videos, and then tried to write again, but he couldn’t quite shake them.

When Darren came back later that night, he immediately came to his room to tell him about his trip into town. It wasn’t long until he noticed Chris was sulking.

“What’s wrong?” Darren asked with a small frown.

“Nothing.” It was stupid. Gael was just being Gael, and Chris should’ve ignored her, but he couldn’t push her voice out of his mind. He knew how weird it was. _He_ was the one who had spent countless nights thinking about how it would feel to be in a relationship. _He_ was the one who had found himself watching porn and wondering if it was really like that, and _craving_ the intimacy, even if it was that crude. _He_ was the one who had kept asking himself if someone would ever want to have sex with him.

“Chris.”

Chris’s jaw clenched reflexively, as if his own body was forbidding him to say anything to Darren, but he forced it open. “Gael thinks it’s weird that we’re having sex. Or, well, that ‘wee innocent Chris’ is having sex. I don’t— why can’t she just mind her own fucking business? Like, I get it, it’s weird for me too that I’m actually having sex with someone, let alone with you, but it’s none of her business,” he complained.

“...It kind of is her business if she can hear us,” Darren said, talking to Chris like he was an animal you wouldn’t want to enrage.  
  
“It’s not. We’re not the only people having sex in this apartment,” Chris insisted.  
  
“And she probably discusses other people’s sex lives too. It’s nothing personal,” Darren pointed out.  
  
Chris looked at Darren with a frown. “Why are you defending her?”  
  
Darren even had the audacity to smile. “Because if she can’t see how _not_ innocent you are, that just makes it easier for me to keep you all to myself and have hot, loud sex with you.” By the end of the sentence, his voice was a very low murmur and he had moved closer to Chris, who was fighting a smile.

“Shut up.”

“It’s true though. I mean, when you got here you were this”—one corner of Darren’s mouth twitched up in amusement—“ _virginal_ nerd, and now you’re definitely not a virgin anymore, and _I_ see that, but she doesn’t. She can’t. So just let her talk, and have sex with me in the meantime.”

“You think you’re so smooth,” Chris huffed.  
  
Darren grinned and looked down at Chris’s lips, “I am. You totally want to bang right now.”

“Just shut up.” He totally wanted to bang.


	8. Chapter 8

It was morning. The light came in from the part of the window the stiff curtains didn't manage to cover and it created a line on the pinboard, cutting his “to watch” list in half. One spring of the mattress was sticking uncomfortably into his back, but Darren's arm was warm on his naked chest and he could feel the coarse hair on his leg and it was just really nice. Sleeping with Darren was nice, even if he got too hot and the single bed they were given really wasn't made for two people unless they were spooning. Even then someone's butt would be glued to the cold wall and the other person’s knee would stick out on the other side of the blanket, and they still needed to work on it, he knew that. They had time.

For now, they were content with just pressing against each other and trying to make sure no body parts were outside of the safe zone the blanket provided; if that meant having Darren's half-hard dick pressed to his thigh, well, Chris could live with that. It just made for an easy way to wake Darren up: it was right within arm’s reach and he didn't know what time it was but they didn't have any classes today anyway, so he could take his time and drag it out. He didn't even lift the blanket when he started palming him before he actually took him in his hand and thumbed over the head as he tried to shift slowly and move out of Darren's hold. He realized very soon that it wasn't going to happen. He'd shifted too close to the wall during the night and he knew that if he tried to move more, he would just end up elbowing it and giving Gael a clear sign of what they were doing. Which wouldn't have surprised anyone, but he could do without the payback he would get from her as soon as her fuckbuddy came over.

So, he settled back down. A blowjob wasn't happening, but Darren would forgive him. He tightened his grip around him, the warm skin silky-soft in his hand. He could feel more than hear Darren's breaths getting heavier and quicker against his shoulder, but he could tell that he wasn't awake yet. He let go of Darren's cock for a moment to touch his balls, heavy in his palm, before moving his hand back and tugging more purposefully. The blanket was starting to get in the way, but it was too cold for him to even think of moving it.

Darren was starting to wake up. His hand twitched, and his thigh moved against Chris's; then his back arched just slightly, as if trying to get closer to Chris’s hand, and then he let out a low hum. His eyes were still closed when he opened his mouth to ask for more, and he gripped Chris's shoulder with one hand to have the leverage to move his hips. Chris started pumping faster, watching the shape of his fist under the blanket until Darren pushed at it and clumsily moved it out of the way. Chris shivered and Darren's nipples looked especially hard but if he moved he would just get colder. He could tell that Darren was close, and he still hadn't opened his eyes, but if he had Chris knew that this would be the part where he would squeeze them closed and he'd get a crease between his brows and he would start cursing and begging.

“Fuck, Chris, please, ahh— fuck, fuck.” His voice was deep and a bit scratchy, which only added to the thrill of being able to make Darren feel like that, of being able to make Darren come with just his hand in a cold dorm room. He was glad that the blanket was out of the way because Darren's come would've gotten all over it. Instead, it landed in streaks on Chris's hand and Darren's hip and Chris's thigh, and Darren whined before his lips formed a silent ‘o’ and he froze before he fucked two, three times up into Chris's hand and his hand twitched on Chris's shoulder.

They both let go then, Darren fisting himself for a few moments before resting his hand at the base of his cock and sighing happily. Chris turned his head, his nose colliding with Darren's on the pillow, and smiled sleepily, waiting for him to finally open his eyes. When he did, though, it wasn't to look at Chris.

“Shit, I have to pee!” he exclaimed, quickly turning and planting his feet on the ground before running to the bathroom, closing the door behind him and leaving Chris naked and half-hard on the cold bed, smiling fondly with one arm thrown over his forehead. The bathroom door didn't muffle any noise, so he heard Darren pee and flush the toilet. After he washed his hands, Chris was expecting the door to open, but that didn't happen. He didn't know what was taking Darren so long, but he started lazily stroking himself as he waited, and somehow he managed to make himself fully hard by the time Darren came out.

“That was amazing,” Darren said as he strode purposefully to the bed. He slung one leg over both of Chris's and straddled his thighs. Before Chris could even process what was happening, Darren was rolling a condom on to him and sinking down on his cock.

“Ah, fuck, Darren,” Chris moaned, his hands flying to Darren's hips. “ _That's_ what was taking you so long?” he asked incredulously while Darren stayed still.

“I found some lube in the bathroom,” was Darren's only response before he started moving his hips back and forth, little circles that had Chris going mad.

“Darren, come on,” Chris whined, thrusting up as he tightened his grip on Darren's hips. Darren leaned down to kiss him, his lips moving slowly against Chris's, making a wet sound when he pulled back. Chris opened his eyes and looked up at him just to see Darren close his eyes and start actually fucking himself onto Chris's cock.

Chris let out a loud breath and looked at Darren's thighs as they worked, the hard muscles moving beneath all the skin. Chris just had to touch them, had to feel the way they shifted because of how Darren was pushing himself up and down, over and over again, as his cock—now hard again, and it always happened so quickly for Darren—bounced on Chris's stomach with every fall.

Darren stopped for a few seconds and Chris groaned in protest, immediately planting his feet on the bed and fucking up into him, making the mattress creak and Darren moan breathily. “Chris, Chris, fuck, please!”

Chris grabbed Darren's hips and tugged him down against him over and over again, both of them working to chase the warmth in their stomachs and then Chris seized up, mouth parting and eyes unfocusing as he came into the condom, still inside Darren, who soon stopped fucking himself on Chris's cock and just tugged at his own relentlessly until he came for a second time over Chris's stomach, weak stripes of come covering the pale skin.

Chris loved how time seemed to stop in the moments just after an orgasm, how the only things he could hear were Darren’s breaths and his own heartbeat thumping in his ears, unable to will his body to move even an inch. It worked differently for Darren, because every time he would kiss Chris’s lips once, twice, and get rid of the condom before clinging to Chris, moving as close as possible and touching Chris’s heaving chest.

“It was there from the other day,” Chris murmured when he finally started functioning again.

Darren let out a questioning noise. “The lube,” Chris replied. “We left it there after we tried having sex in the shower.”

“Oh,” Darren breathed out, crinkling his nose and making Chris remember the experience. They had tried so hard, but those showers barely fit one person in them, let alone two, especially if they were going to move.

“We should try that again at my house,” Darren said after a few moments. “My shower is huge. Ohh, or we can try the bath!”

“That’s disgusting, Darren,” Chris said dryly.

“What? Imagine a bath blowjob!” Darren said excitedly, shifting closer until he had one arm resting on Chris’s chest and could look down at him.

“That’s just gonna end up with someone drowning, and I sure as hell don’t want your parents to find you dead when you’re naked in the bathtub with me.”  
  
“Wait, who said _I_ was gonna give _you_ a blowjob?” Darren asked, frowning playfully and making Chris roll his eyes.

“Please, like you wouldn’t have my cock in your mouth all the time if you could.”

There was a beat of silence.

“I mean, you’re not wrong…” 

* * *

  
  
“I‘m not feeling well,” Chris mumbled while they were sitting at the table in the kitchen.

“Is it because of your balls?” Darren asked curiously, not a single trace of teasing in his voice. Eden turned around and looked at them like they were crazy. “Oh, I accidentally sat on Chris’s balls and now he’s not feeling well,” Darren explained quickly before turning back to Chris, who just nodded dejectedly.

“Oookay, I’m not gonna ask how that happened,” Eden said, turning back around to keep washing her dishes.

Darren chuckled, “I swear it wasn’t anything sexual! We were just sitting on the bed and I moved and sat on his balls somehow.”

“Sure, Darren,” Eden nodded, not looking at them.

“It’s true. Darren’s just not in control of his body most of the time, and I’m always at the receiving end of his mistreatment.”

“Hey, come on, I’m not mistreating you, I’m just kinda clumsy,” Darren said, grabbing Chris’s face and kissing his cheek.

Chris just looked at him. “Since you sat on my balls and obviously need my forgiveness, will you get me a cat?”

Darren let out an exasperated sigh. “Chris, you can’t have a cat,” he said with an amused smile.  
  
“But Darren! I need it for when you leave!” Chris argued, widening his eyes.  
  
“Hey, I’m here _now_ !” Darren quipped back, throwing Chris an almost offended look. 

“I know you are! But a _cat_ though...”  
  
“ _Chris_ .”  
  
“Let’s get a cat?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“You sat on my balls!”

“I’ll kiss ‘em better.”

“Guys!” Eden interrupted them loudly. “There are things I just don’t wanna know about my roommates, okay? And since I’m the only one in the whole university who still hasn’t actually _heard_ you have sex, I would like to keep my purity intact if you don’t mind,” she said, turning back to face the sink once again after seeing the boys’ faces look like they had been scolded by their mother. There was a minute of silence before either of them had the courage to speak again.

“Will you really kiss them better?”


End file.
